MONAI/2

Petrie/1878, 37: `Drawn by Dr. Petrie from the stone in 1837. A portion of this monument is now preserved in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy'.

Okasha/Forsyth/2001, 201--202: `first recorded by Petrie who drew it in 1837 .. Petrie recorded that stones nos. 1, 2, and 3 had been found `in the church' ... This may, however, merely indicate that they were found around the church site, as seems to have been the case with Monaincha 1 [MONAI/1]. Monaicha 2 [this stone] was broken before 1853 when the portion still in existence was exhibited at the Great Exhibition by the Royal Irish Academy ... It may by then have been presented to the Academy by a Mr Birch and certainly had been so by 1857 ... This portion of the stone was transferred with the rest of the Academy collection to the NMI in 1890. The portion of the stone now lost is known only from Petrie's account and drawing'.

Macalister/1949, 102, gives no description or dimensions for the stone.

Okasha/Forsyth/2001, 201: `large plain slab'.

Condition:

incomplete , someOkasha/Forsyth/2001, 202: `The stone is complete except for the right-hand edge which is now broken, the break coming in the middle of the second letter D. Petrie's drawing shows the slab complete and his scale drawing indicates that the stone was then about 156 cm in width. This indicates that a sizeable piece of the stone is now lost'.

Okasha/Forsyth/2001, 202: `The letters are large and dominate the slab ... The script used is half-uncial except for the second D which in Petrie's drawing was clearly a capital. The lettering is rather square, especially the four-sided form of A'.

CISP: The lettering is in Insular half-uncial. Some letters such as B, R and N have wedge-shaped finials atop ascenders. The two Rs are in open majuscule form, although the 'foot' of the second R is straight and not curved (contra drawing in Okasha/Forsyth/2001, 202). The first D has an ascender which bends to the left over an open bow, while the ascender on the Bs are vertical. The A is angular and almost square- or lozenge-shaped, and similar to that found on MONAI/1. The second D, was in capitalis with the curved stroke extending to the left beyond the ascender.

Legibility:

someOkasha/Forsyth/2001, 202: `The first eight letters are undamaged and legible'.